Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Why Learning to Code Outweighs a Degree in Computer Science (theepochtimes.com) 1

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: A college degree may not the best route when it comes to jobs in coding. Jobs for computer science majors flow aplenty, yet employers (and job-seekers) often learn quickly that the college grads don't have the skills. "This is because the courses taught in virtually all computer science curriculums focus on theory, and they only dabble in teaching practical programming skills," says Cody Scholberg on Epoch Times. This ties into a unique factoid in the world of programmers. Nearly half of the software developers in the United States do not have a college degree. Many never even graduated from high school. Instead, many aspiring programmers are turning to open source learning materials, or to the new programming bootcamps popping up around the United States. While theory does have its place, the situation begs the question of whether colleges are teaching the right skills people need to join the workforce, and what its place is amid the rise of open source learning.

Submission + - Great Firewall of UK blocks game patch because of substring matches

Submitted by Sockatume
Sockatume writes: Remember the fun of spurious substring matches, AKA the Scunthorpe problem? The UK's advanced "intelligent" internet filters do. Supposedly the country's great new filtering regime has been blocking a patch for League of Legends because some of the filenames within it include the substring "sex". Add one to the list of embarrassing failures for the nation's new mosaic of opt-out censorship systems, which have proven themselves incapable of distinguishing between abusive sites and sites for abuse victims, or sites for pornography versus sites for sexual and gender minorities.

Submission + - Weibo Goes Down in China, Traffic Redirected to Freedom Software (theepochtimes.com)

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: Weibo, China's replacement for Twitter and Facebook, went offline for about two hours on Jan. 20, when a DNS attack switched its IP address to overseas VPN software used to circumvent censorship. On Jan. 21, the brief IP switch was the most discussed topic on Weibo, with one user, ITHome, saying posting “What IP is 65.49.2.178? It’s sure to go down in history.” The IP address is one of those used by Freegate, which is free software released by Chinese dissidents in the U.S. intended to help Chinese people break through the Great Firewall. However, Bill Xia, president of Dynamic Internet Technology, which makes Freegate, said he and his team of volunteers thought their networks were under attack when they got a surge of traffic with about 100,000 users a second hitting their IP address. Xia said they are still trying to analyze the incident, but he assumes it was a slip-up the Chinese authorities in charge of censoring content. “Our guess is they messed up again,” he said. “This doesn’t make sense for them, so I assume it was a mistake in their operation.”

Submission + - Feds pull Google Glass user from theater for suspected piracy (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by maharvey
maharvey writes: A man wearing prescription Google Glass in a theater was pulled out and questioned by agents of the MPAA and Homeland Security. No word on who tipped them off or why they were hanging out there at 10pm. The feds wouldn't let him go until they'd verified the contents of his Google Glass, yet they characterize the interaction as "voluntary." Apparently the DHS is the new MPAA enforcement arm. Does this mean that "homeland" has been redefined as "corporate?"

Submission + - ID Now Required to Post Videos Online in China (theepochtimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new law in China requires that anyone who uploads a video to the Internet is required to use their real identities. The law was announced in a Jan. 20 notice posted by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). It states that all websites with video and/or audio programs must "strictly guard the pass" for user uploaded content, and that any content that “does not comply with the relevant provisions of the state” must be “immediately taken down.” The move closely follows new laws in China taht can land people in jail if an online blog post goes viral. SARFT says it is to “create a civilized and healthy Internet environment.”

Submission + - Fighting the Flu May Hurt Those Around You (sciencemag.org) 4

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: When you've got the flu, it can't hurt to take an aspirin or an ibuprofen to control the fever and make you feel better, right? Wrong, some scientists say. Lowering your body temperature may make the virus replicate faster and increase the risk that you transmit it to others. A new study claims that there are at least 700 extra influenza deaths in the United States every year because people suppress their fever.

Submission + - Target-related malware was a side job for man living in Russia (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by angry tapir
angry tapir writes: In a surprising TV interview, a 23-year-old living in Russia said he helped code a software program that experts believe was eventually modified to steal tens of millions of payment card details from Target. Rinat Shabayev, who lives in Saratov, Russia, told Lifenews.ru that the program has a defensive purpose of finding software problems but could have been abused by criminals. The news outlet characterized his work on the program as a side job, quoting him as saying, "I am trying to find work. I want to find a normal and stable job and time to start my own business."

Submission + - Australian government pushes social media watchdog (afr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Social networks run by the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google could be directed to remove bullying and other online content deemed ‘harmful’ under a proposal the Australian government is distributing to the industry.

Submission + - OPML Tool Aggregates the Literary Blogosphere (nocategories.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over the years, the blogroll on Ron Silliman’s Blog has grown to such an extent that it is now its own blog, with more than 1,300 links to literary blogs. Even without Google Reader, you can still subscribe to a huge number of blogs and join the conversation. I’ve created a tool to help make it easy to do this, so you can get back to reading and posting.

Submission + - 2014 smiles at 3D arcades emulators (kingofgng.com)

Submitted by KingofGnG
KingofGnG writes: The new year started with the release of updated versions for two “small” 3D emulators, projects essentially managed in a personal way by developers used to take all the time that’s needed — and often more so — to cook the code and publish the resulting executable builds. The first emulator (Model 2 Emulator) comes by ElSemi, a long-time mamedev that doesn’t fear reverse engineering on complex platforms the likes of Capcom’s CPS3 and Sega’s Model 2.

Submission + - SteamOS ISO now available for non UEFI systems (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Valve Software has published beta ISO image which can be used to install the Debian based operating system on non-UEFI systems [download image]. When Valve announced SteamOS, quite a lot of users were disappointed as the OS images were available only for UEFI systems leaving out those users who had legacy BIOS based systems. Since the images are at beta stage and developers admit that very little testing was done on those images so it’s not recommended for dual booting systems. At the same time beware of testing it on a machine which has critical data on it as you might lose that data, so I heavily recommend to try it on a test machine and disconnect additional hard drives which may had important data on them.

Comment Military and police. That's it. (Score 1) 254

by jjp9999 (#45911647) Attached to: I think wearable computing will take off...

I could see this becoming big for militaries and police, but that's it. They're already talking about making cops wear cameras in Canada. They'd also want it for facial recognition, which means a computer could tell them who is wanted, or if a person has ties that makes them shady.

I think consumer versions won't take off for all the above reasons. Once people realize the other uses for these devices and what that means, I think they'll avoid them (especially since the early adopters probably need to be geeks). Also, there are too many copyright issues out there (i.e. accidentally recording a song in a video you upload, wearing them into movies, watching TV, going into a building that doesn't want you recording, etc.).

Submission + - Chinese Billionaire Manages to Fool Western Media But Gets Censored in China (theepochtimes.com)

Submitted by BioTitan
BioTitan writes: What if Warren Buffet called a press conference, sung karaoke, mused on international politics for 10 minutes, then announced he was paying $2 million for the reconstructive surgery of two women, claiming to be former Christians, who set themselves on fire 13 years ago? Then he brings the women out and slowly unwraps their burnt faces, to demonstrate to the crowd how generous he is. Chen Guangbiao, the Chinese businessman who grabbed headlines for saying he wanted to buy the New York Times, held almost the same press conference the other day. His story was reported widely in English-language media, but censored by the government back home in China. The reason involves complex factional politics of the Chinese Communist Party.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster. - Voltaire

Close